Jefferson High School counselor Patricia Scott, the best-known whistleblower in connection to the El Paso Independent School District cheating scandal, attended a November board meeting expecting an employee of the month recognition.

Instead, she was surprised by local FBI officials who announced she would receive the bureau's Community Leadership Award, which honors individuals who have made contributions to the agency's local investigations.

Scott said that presentation at the central office was more than enough for her.

Today, she will be recognized in a ceremony in Washington, D.C., including FBI Director James Comey and other award recipients from across the country.

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Andrew Kreighbaum

"I feel nervous and at the same time I'm happy and excited. All my emotions are striking me at the same time," Scott said ahead of the trip. "I just feel like I'm finally accepting the fact that this happened and I'm being recognized for something I did."

Scott in 2009 went to superiors at the school district with concerns over potential cheating at Bowie High School after finding 77 altered student transcripts.

When immediate supervisors took no action on the transcripts, Scott went to then-Superintendent Lorenzo García. The district would eventually begin an investigation into those transcripts. But Scott was targeted for harassment and bad work evaluations for the first time in her career.

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García was indicted and sentenced to 31/2 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to corruption charges. While at EPISD, he cheated federal accountability standards by kicking out some students improperly holding back others to prevent them from taking the 10th grade TAKS test and directing a no-bid contract to a mistress.

Dan Wever, a former EPISD school board member who worked to expose the cheating scheme, said Scott provided key ammunition for those suspicious of the rapid improvement in federal ratings for several campuses.

"It takes a lot of guts to do something that might cost you your job. And the mentality or the feeling at that time was they weren't in any danger," Wever said of the administrators running the cheating scheme. "Nobody knew they were the bad guys."

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh in May 2010 accused García of gaming the federal accountability system by "disappearing" students from the 10th grade testing population. García responded by holding a rally at Coronado High School accusing Shapleigh of hurting students. Many in the community continued to support the EPISD administration.

Soon thereafter a draft audit of the Bowie investigation was completed that the district shielded from public disclosure as administrators publicly denied wrongdoing. Scott and Shapleigh eventually made contact and he helped steer her toward local FBI agents.

"It was a combination of a bunch of people that finally got everything going," Wever said.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Douglas Lindquist said in November that Scott, in her role as whistleblower, had gone "above and beyond" when she discovered district policies were hurting students and, by extension, the community.

"She stepped up and tried to do the right thing against mounting odds and continued with moral courage to go forward," he said.

Making the trip to Washington with Scott this week is EPISD lead counselor Susan Crews, who Scott described as one of her staunchest supporters after she came forward with the cheating concerns.

Crews said when she learned of Scott's struggle at the district, her spirits were deflated and her health had suffered from the pressure from superiors over the transcripts.

"But she was determined to do what was right no matter what happened. She was an advocate for the kids," Crews said. "I just think it's so wonderful when people actually live out their values and they actually have a code of ethics and they stand by it."

Scott said she hopes El Pasoans and those in the district are reinforced when they feel compelled to stand up to wrongdoing.

"I'm hoping that people recognize, not the award, but recognize that it's okay to speak up when something is going on and report it," she said. "It's not about receiving awards. It's about doing the right thing."

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